Something New, Something Old

  new gits ...a purse from Iran ...

 As a gift to myself, I thought I would skip my exercise this morning. That seemed the perfect present on my birthday – skip the event that I don’t look forward to.

There was another side to my psyche whispering to me, what a cop-out, you are a big coward. The first day of a new birthday year and you aren’t doing the one thing today that should be at the top of your list for the next 365 days.

I have been thinking about my birthday, knowing that it was coming up. I have been more thoughtful than usual for someone mentioned to me that Beatrice Henninger, an old friend, is in a retirement home now. Not that she wanted to go there, but she is 97 and falling quite a bit.

I did the math between my age and hers and I could see that if I am as lucky as she, to make it to nearly 100, I will have 25 years or more left to live. I don’t have a long range plan for that many years. That has been bothering me.

I think every day when I wake up, “Yay! Another day. I hope I can enjoy every minute of it.” But I have no plan other than to maximize my health and happiness. That is bothering me. Twenty-five years of that kind of happiness would be nice, but still ... what is wrong with a plan?

a charming fringe on my new table cloth

I have a couple of other material gifts for my birthday. I told Wyona that I have a lovely pull over sweater which I don’t use because I can’t get it on and off easily. She offered to cut it down the front, bind the edges and make it in a cardigan for me. I tried it on today. Coco Channel never looked better. The sweater came to me used. A beautiful hand knit hounds tooth wool that someone else could no longer wear. The best gifts – recycled and refitted.

As an added bonus for my birthday, Wyona took some material she had purchased in Ushuaia and created a new bag for me by sewing the fabric on the bag as pockets. I will think of going to “the end of the world” when I put stuff in that bag. The print is a map of the tip of South America, showing the islands and the straits that pepper the end of the world.

Italian silk scarf ...
... an extravagance which I must wear often
so that the price per wearing comes down...
... find it at 60% off helps ...

Wyona and I were on an outing a couple of days ago, not that we need to purchase anything. But what does one do if they don’t want to eat out or go to commercial entertainment. We just wanted to look at stuff. So we were at Winners, ostensibly checking out the jewellery around Mother’s Day, but we ended up in the hat section. She couldn’t stop herself from putting on a big hat, one so large that its floppy black brim covered both of her shoulders and passers by would have to dip down to see the face that was hidden by that hat. Wyona would ask other casual shoppers what they thought of the hat. At first they were speechless. Then they laughed so hard. No one dared tell her go for it!

I thought, buy that hat and you will save money on not having to use sunscreen this summer.

I knew Kelvin would want to buy me a gift for my birthday.

I decided to be his legs and find something that would remind me of turning 74. I found the perfect scarf – a classic royal blue silk paisley with an interesting tan border.

Tonight I ended a perfect first day of a new birth year by taking a walk with Michael and Alice while their parents went to learn about the neighbourhood Montessori Day School.

... a splendid Alberta sunset ...

Michael is always looking up at the sky, interested that the moon comes up before the sun has gone down.

Since he was looking up so often, I watched the sky with him as well.

I loved watching the sun’s golden rays peek through the skeletons of trees that are still not leafed out.

Alice and Michael and I walked together until about 9 pm.

Oh, .... spring takes a long time to come in Alberta.  It is not here yet.

Arta